Please see the files below for resources to support emotional and mental health.
Depression isn’t just for adults, and it isn’t just being ‘a bit sad’. We all feel a bit down sometimes, but if these emotions and ‘feeling low’ last a long time or affect your child’s daily life, then they may have depression.
Depression is a common mental health problem that causes people to experience low mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or loss of appetite, low energy, and poor concentration.
The triggers for depression are not fully understood however, various contributing factors can lead to it, these can include biological factors (for example, genetics or experience of physical illness or injury) and psychological or social factors (experiences of bereavement, or life-changing events.)
Spotting signs of depression in a child or young adult signs can be tricky to spot as a lot of these can be shrugged off as ‘just being a kid’, the signs are complex and range from;
Self-harming is difficult to talk about but very common, it’s when you hurt yourself on purpose. Usually it’s because something else feels wrong, it seems like the only way to let those feelings out. Self-harming is a symptom of another problem.
Self-harm is when someone hurts themselves as a coping mechanism to deal with difficult feelings, painful memories or overwhelming situations.
Self-harming is difficult to talk about but very common, it’s when you hurt yourself on purpose. Usually it’s because something else feels wrong, it seems like the only way to let those feelings out. Self-harming is a symptom of another problem.
Self-harm is when someone hurts themselves as a coping mechanism to deal with difficult feelings, painful memories or overwhelming situations.
Some people have described self-harm to express something that is hard to put into words, to change emotional pain into physical pain or have a sense of being in control or to punish themselves for their feelings.
Some of the ways people self-harm are cutting their body, over or under eating, exercising excessively, misusing alcohol, pulling your own hair, hitting yourself or walls.
If you self-harm, it is important that you know how to look after your injuries and that you have access to the first aid equipment you need. LifeSIGNS has information on first aid for self-injury and self-harm.
Anxiety is not just feeling shy, it’s bigger and more complex than that, and it’s also a totally normal feeling of fear or panic. When humans face stressful situations it can trigger our ‘gut feeling’, the in-built body alarm bell we have, which tells us when we don’t feel right about something, and we need to deal with it.
Anxiety can kick start our ‘fight or flight’ response, which make us feel more alert, stops us thinking about other things, and even pumps more blood to our legs to help us run away.
Most of us worry and feel anxious sometimes – about things like exams or tests, but once it’s over we usually calm down and feel better. Anxiety becomes a problem when you’re not in a stressful situation, and you still feel worried or panicky.
If any of these symptoms are affecting your everyday life, it’s a good idea to tell someone you trust about how you’re feeling.